Leaving Ankara with a clean bill of health
we were free to enjoy the beautiful Aegean Coast of Turkey. Finally we were able to get a good sleeper
train from Ankara to Izmir with a private sleeping compartment. This was an excellent overnight night train. I love sleeping on trains and waking up to
fantastic sunrises while rattling through the country side.
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| Enjoying an Efes while on the Ankara - Izmir train |
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| Sunrise over Turkey |
We had a short stay in Izmir taking in the
fantastic waterfront with fresh fish restaurants and amazing sunsets. We took a few happy snaps of the main tourist
attraction, the watch tower and did our usual walking around the streets taking
it all in.
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| Sunset in Izmir |
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| Watchtower, Izmir |
There was a big political rally a few hundred
metres along the waterfront from where we were having our fish dinner. This rally was part of the election campaign
of Erdogan for the Presidency of Turkey. Big political changes are happening in
Turkey. Modern Turkey was founded in
1922 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the
military leader in the Turkish War of Independence which claimed back land
given to the Greeks following the spoils of war land distribution after
WWI. Atatürk was a progressive and
dynamic leader and set up Turkey as a modern secular state.
By
contrast Erdogan seems to want to take Turkey back to a more fundamentalist
Islamic state with his AK Party. Erdogan
was elected Prime Minister in 2002 although he could not take office for about
a year as he was banned from political office following his conviction and
imprisonment for inciting religious/racial hatred. Conveniently for Erdogan the laws were
changed to allow him to take up the Prime Ministership. To his credit he has improved the Turkish
economy and infrastructure but at the cost of an increased deficit. The World Bank has praised him for his social
reforms (more education for girls) and economic stability (Turkey seems to have
come through the GFC much better than neighbouring Greece). However as Prime Minister, Erdogan has systematically
eroded civil liberties and changed laws to allow himself more and more
power.
One of
the changes in the law was that the office of President, previously a
ceremonial role appointed by Congress, would now be an elected position and
have increasing powers. In the 10 April
election Erdogan won the Presidency in a landslide victory. Everyone we talked to were very upset by this
change but Erdogan has a firm power base in the rural and conservative sectors.
(We did a
little survey of Erdogan supporters while watching the crowds leave the
election rally. In Turkey about 20% of
the women wear a hajab. We noticed that
there seemed to be a lot more hajab wearing women at the Erdogan rally. In our count over 50% were wearing the
hajab.)
So Turkey
could be in for some big changes in the future and we fear the progressive
secular state set up by Ataturk could turn into something much more
fundamentalist.
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| Future president for life? |
While
ruminating on the politics of Turkey we took a 5 hour trip by bus to the resort
town of Marmaris on the Southeast coast.
There is nothing conservative about this town. It exists for English and Russian tourist to
have fun on the beach and party into the wee hours of the morning. We managed to get a nice room with
kitchenette in a relatively quite part of town.
Our main purpose to come to Marmaris was for the boats. Marmaris has the largest marina in Europe and
we figured is there was any boat with our name on it in Europe it would be
here. We looked and looked at boats but
unfortunately there really wasn’t much choice.
Most of the boats for sale were ex-charter plastic fantastic coastal
cruisers and not the solid blue water cruisers we are looking for.
Still we
did enjoy the area. Marmaris is a
beautiful area and we enjoyed the beach (though pretty ordinary by Australian
standards – gravel, no sand) and did lots of swimming in the hotel pool. We were there in peak
season and it is very touristy. We almost don't feel as if we are in
Turkey any more. There seems to be more British tourists than Turkish
residents. But you can see why the Brits
would love this place, warm, sunny weather, beautiful scenery and everything
set up for British tourists (Yorkshire puddings on the menu!) and prices,
although high by what we were use to so far in our travels, still cheaper than
in Britian.
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| Gulets at the town wharf |
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| Marmaris waterfront |
The town is totally geared for fun in the sun and we enjoyed a day going across the bay in a water taxi and did manage to find some historical sites such as a restored Medieval castle.
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| View from the water |
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| Hills around the bay |
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| Medieval castle with fabulous views |
Throughout Turkey we have been impressed at the great public parks and fountains. Marmaris was no exception.
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| Mermaid fountain in Marmaris |
Next we went to Fethiye, a 2 ½ hour bus
trip east. Fethiye is a mini-Marmaris
but more low key. There was a marina
here as well and some boats for sale but nothing suitable. We stayed in a nice family run Panysiyon with
a fairly ordinary room but fantastic rooftop terrace overlooking the marina.
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| View from our Pansiyon rooftop terrace |
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| Another beautiful Turkish sunset, Fethiye marina |
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| Whimsical public park near the markets |
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| Fethiye marina from the water |
As with everywhere in this part of the
world there are Roman ruins scattered around the town. The Roman rock tombs on a hill just on the edge
of the town, date from the 4th Century BC.
We went to the small municipal museum and were amazed to see two large
marble statues from around 300 AD of two Roman emperors, one being of Hadrian
of the wall fame, which had only just been discovered three years ago. This area is just chock-a-block full of the
most amazing ancient gems just lying unknown under the ground.
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| Roman rock tombs |
We did the tourist thing and took a Gulet
(sailboat) tour around the 12 islands in the Bay. It was a great day out.
They stopped 4 times to let everyone have a swim off the boat and provided a
nice bbq fish lunch. The water was beautiful and fantastic to swim in. The Gulet even managed a bit of downwind sailing. Just had baggy old sails but it was lovely not to have the motor on for a few hours.
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| Tour boats of all shapes and models heading out for the 12 island tour |
We would have liked to stay in this area
for longer and visit a few more coastal towns such as Kas, but being peak
season it was impossible to find affordable accommodation at short notice. So we decided to continue on to Istanbul and
wrap up our Turkey travels over the next 10 days or so. Sadly after 18 weeks of travel we now have a
bit of a schedule and need to see the rest of Southern Europe by mid-September
and then on to the US before the end of the northern boating season.
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